Giving a negative review is something that I really don't like to do, but I feel that in this case it is something that needs doing. Back in December 2017 the week before Christmas I brought in a Peavey Bandit 112 (from the mid 90's). I was having a problem with the amp shutting down for no reason. It would fade out and completely shut down then with out warning wit would start back up. The power light always stayed lit. I was told that there was a 2 week turnover on equipment. Bob had my amp for 2 months total, during that period I kept in constant touch. Bob told me he was trying to get a part directly from Peavey. It was a T-dynamic potentiometer. This pot was no longer being manufactured, but his contact thought there may be one available. One of my concerns was the cost since I had purchased the amp for $50 and I was concerned at spending a lot of money on the unit. Initially I had given him a $42 deposit (non refundable). At that time, he indicated that it did not sound like all that much was wrong with the amp.
I never receive a call relative to the amp being repaired and ready so I took a chance and stopped by to check on the status. At that point I was told that the amp was ready and that I owed an additional $124 (or so). I was not all that happy but I bit the bullet and paid the bill. I did not get a chance to check out the amp for a few days and much to my dismay I found that the original problem was still present. According to the bill the T- dynamics pot was replaced as well as a input jack. I called and spoke to Bob and told him that I was very unhappy with the repair. He did tell me to return the unit and he would check it out. I made it clear that I would not pay anything additional for the repair since the original problem still existed. I did tell him that I could override the problem by pressing the FX switch all the way in. I also indicated that I did not think that the switch was the actual problem. Bob disagreed and I told him that I was not willing to argue. All I wanted was to get the amp repaired.
Well this time I did get a call to pick it up. I was told that all the switches had been replaced with original Peavey parts. Well guess what? I got it home and tried it and found that the problem still existed. I gave it another try the following day and it did the same thing. Now I really did not want to call Bob again, but it was the principal of the thing. I paid good money for the repair and got nothing in return. Well I called and only got an answering machine I left a message, but never received a return call. Knowing that Bob was now familiar with my phone number I decided to send an e-mail. Again, no response. So, the following day or so I sent another e-mail and his automated system responded and indicated that someone would contact me within 24 hours. I waited but again no response.
Now I guess you could say I was P-----. I decided to take the amp apart and see if there was anything I could do. I personally had already made some repairs replacing several (4 in all) pots, due to broken stems. So I did have some Idea of what I was getting in to. Well I was able confirm the work that Bob said he had done. It was actually very easy because his work was messy and he left all of his flux behind. The first thing I did was to clean all the flux off the installed parts so that I could inspect his soldering work. Well, I could not find any problem with his work, but the amp still did not work. I further inspected all of the board paying special attention to the FX circuity. I found a total of 5 locations where the solder joints were questionable (all from the time of manufacture) one in particular was at a resistor connected to the FX switch. I spent the time an re-soldered these joints. At present, I have used the amp on 3 occasions for a total of 5 or 6 hours. It is now working the way it should.
Therefore, I can not give a rating higher than 1 since it appears that the parts that were replaced were not necessary at all. It seems like the problem could have been repaired by solder, and no more money then the original deposit.
Would I recommend Providence Music service to anyone else? Absolutely not! Was I satisfied? No! I will not get into his personality simply because we are all different and boy is he different.
What I did get out of this repair was a $162 lesson. read more
